The Status of the Least Documented Language Families in the World

This paper, by Harald Hammarström, aims to list all known language families that are not yet extinct and all of whose member languages are very poorly documented, i.e., less than a sketch grammar’s worth of data has been collected. It explains what constitutes a valid family, what amount and kinds of documentary data are sufficient, when a language is considered extinct, and more. It is hoped that the survey will be useful in setting priorities for documentation fieldwork, in particular for those documentation efforts whose underlying goal is to understand linguistic diversity.

This interesting report can be accessed here, through the Language Documentation & Conservation site.

A View from England: What did you say?

"It's well-known that England and America are two countries divided by a common language, but I wonder how many people realize that even the simplest words can have different meanings and be cause for confusion."

An interesting read of the differences between American English and British English can be found here...